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Iraq`s National Library Being Restored

After months of repairing water damage, cleaning up the dirt and doing some reorganization, readers and researchers can finally visit the Iraq`s National Library.

It took nearly a year and a half to recreate all that was lost after one of Iraq`s chief repositories of historical record was looted and burned. Surviving archives and manuscripts had been cleaned and catalogued - while the supervisor goes out occasionally to scour book markets for lost treasures.

While all of this took place, the doors of Iraq Museum remained closed. Its location near a hotbed of resistance puts it in the crossfire of frequent attacks on US forces. But its directors are optimistic about reopening the museum - perhaps within a year - that far supersedes that of Saddam?s era.